Amante Bianco , winner of the first leg of the newly introduced Dirt Triple Crown for 3-year-olds, the April 24 Haneda Hai at Oi Racecourse, was disqualified from the second leg. According to the owner of Silk Racing, Henry Hughes The colt’s near-banked foreleg will cause him to miss the June 5 Tokyo Derby at Oi.
The likely Tokyo Derby favorite will be jet plane . Owner Koji Maeda’s family’s North Hills Breeding Facility bred the breed Mighty warrior pony. The second dam is La Verita consigned by Lane and purchased by North Hills at Keeneland in September 2007 for $320,000
After winning three lengths of the February 18 Hyacinth Stakes at Tokyo Racecourse on the Japan Road to the Kentucky Derby, connections were curious about competing in the May 4 Kentucky Derby (G1) but did not have enough points to pass the qualifying round. Instead, pointed to the April 27 Unicorn Stakes (G3) at Kyoto, Ramjet won the race over 1,900 meters (about 1 3/16 miles) on dirt by 2 1/2 lengths.
ammothyellavia Brick and mortar runner-up to Amante Bianco in Haneda Hai, and Epic Satono via Black Kitasan who finished second to Ramjet in the Unicorn Stakes, were also runners scheduled to run in the Tokyo Derby.
Posting time for the 70th Tokyo Derby is 8:10 p.m. local time on June 5.
